Lisa and Justin’s lovely Illinois engagement session photographed at Morton Arboretum by Just Love Me {Photography + Design} is a perfect way to start out the week. The beautiful trees and gorgeous landscape make for an amazing backdrop for their story to be told. Below is the surprise engagement story that Justin planned and saw through as told by Lisa herself. Enjoy!

From the bride to be:Coffee has always meant a lot to us because in college, late night coffee dates were some of the only times we saw each other. Justin pulled together the proposal two days before doing it. I just moved into my new house and had an entire team over to help me get the place ready. So naturally, Justin decided to throw a barbeque at his sister’s that night with all of our friends, which in turn, made me 45 minutes late. When I got to the barbeque everyone was looking at me kind of funny. I even asked what was going on a few times because something just felt weird. As soon as I went inside for a second and came back out, no one was left in the house and music was playing outside. Not just music, when I opened the door, our song “Everybody” by Sister Hazel was playing and everyone was in a giant circle smiling at me. I knew it was coming — Justin called me over to him and he was carrying a venti Starbucks cup. He told me to open it and inside was a ring box and $100 to Starbucks (SCORE – he knows I LOVE Starbucks, but after buying my place, I was a bit broke, so this was awesome). I honestly don’t remember what he said, I was crying and he was so nervous he didn’t even get down on one knee. After he asked will you marry me, I whispered yes, and of course our friends yelled “We can’t hear you, what did she say???” People still say it was the most intimate, quiet public proposal ever. Because even though we were with a bunch of our friends, it was just him and I. Our friends even took photos and video taped the whole thing for our memories, which Justin knew was important to me. All in all, it was the greatest day of my life, shared with some of the most important people to us. And were going to Seattle for our Honeymoon and visiting the original Starbucks!